Thursday, July 29, 2010

Picture from The Cautionary Revelation of the Apocalypse Blog (Not Affiliated- I Googled Bunny and this came up)

The Point of the Post:

I want everyone to be able to see exactly the policy of this blog. I’m not hiding anything, and I don’t want anyone to think I am. So whether you care or not, here’s the guidelines I’ve set myself, for this blog.

The Situation:

One would think that it would be simple to determine if the company you are buying your blush or mascara from tests on animals. It isn’t. Firstly, a company (at least in North America and Western Europe to the best of my knowledge) is allowed to state that they do not test on animals if the final product is not. This doesn’t cover the ingredients in the product, nor the company’s ability to hire another company to test their products on animals for them. Companies, especially big multi-million dollar companies are sneaky, and really are out to make money for the most part. So it gets confusing and hazy real quick. Depending on how you word your questions to the contact people at the companies they can avoid answering your question or just state they do not test their products (i.e. final products, not the ingredients, but the products for sale.) And if this is fine according to you, this is fine, then feel free to purchase from these brands. Benefit, from what I’ve heard seems to be very good at running around the issue when they reply to inquiry e-mails.

Another case is where they tell you the company is non-animal testing and then refer you to a completely different site to read their policy. This is fine, however time consuming, if the information is in English. I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m fairly miserable at languages other than a few words here or there but a whole legalese document in German! Really Givenchy?!

Then there are companies that don’t test their products, or ingredients, except when required by law. One such company is the Estee Lauder brand. This to me seems to stick them in between a rock and a hard place. To me personally I can understand holding testing (even if I do not agree with it) if the government is making you for a new chemical, etc. So what this means for the blog is that I do feature these brands on Hebridean Sprite Beauty however, I try to avoid any products with new or revolutionary technology ingredients in them. I’m likely to miss and feature one on occasion but overall I don’t exclude these brands, because for their policy is not to test.

Then there are the brands no one can find any information on at all. You can’t find the correct contact info, and no one seems to be able to have any information on the policy one way or another. Frustration runs rampant.

From www.yorkblog.com (Not Affiliated with this either, Google Images)

How this affects Hebridean Sprite Beauty Blog:

In the long run what does this mean for posts and products you’ll read about on Hebridean Sprite Beauty Blog? It means I’ll try my hardest not to include anything tested on animals based on the information I have. I try to research each brand I feature, and I often send e-mails if the information I do find is unclear. The only exception to this is with brands that are sometimes required to test by law, and even then I’m going to try and only mention products by the company that have no new ingredients in them which would have made them subject to the law. I don’t like it, but I’m not going to ask a company to do something illegal. But please remember that I’m human, I make mistakes (often, mind you), and a product may slip through the cracks here and there. If you notice that I’ve messed up, please e-mail me and I will delete or change the post asap.

In Summary:

Here’s our policy in simple points (for quick skimming)

-Brands featured do NOT test their final products on animals

-Brands featured do NOT test their ingredients on animals

-NO PR is accepted from brands that do test on animals

-I DO research each brand mentioned to the best of my ability

-The ONLY exception is brands that conduct animal testing ONLY when it is required by law to do so: HOWEVER, these products (i.e. ones newly out with new ingredients/chemicals) will not be featured on the blog.

-I’m human and a full time student working on her degree, forgive me if I make a mistake, I swear it was not on purpose and I promise to at the very least at an addendum to the post if made aware of it.

-That even IF the brand actively lobbies other cosmetic brands on weekends to stop their animal testing, I’m still going to give you my honest opinion on everything featured- good OR bad.

-Everything is my opinion, I’m not going to repeatedly slam and be down on any brand for their policies (or vise versa). I’m also going to listen to everyone’s opinion- whether I agree or not, everyone is entitled to it. As long as respect is maintained, to each their own. I just ask you respect mine in return.

Again, Google Images (http://open.salon.com/blog/verbal_remedy)

In Conclusion:

In a perfect world, I love science to reach a place so that all cosmetic brands won’t test anything on animals. If a cheap brand like Wet n’ Wild can impliment this policy, certainly I should be able to expect large ones to do the same? Until then however, I hope my blog can make it easier to choose which brands you can trust not to test on animals.